Preliminary plans are under way to renovate Stanford's Maples Pavilion, which would include adding a few hundred seats and some amenities to the basketball arena. But the plan does not include a major reconstruction or a significant increase in seating capacity.

Maples currently seats 7,391, and the proposed renovation would keep seating capacity under 8,000, leaving it as the smallest basketball arena in the Pac-10. Stanford's men's team has won the past two Pac-10 basketball titles and is ranked No. 3 in the country. It sells out most of its games. Stanford's women's team has won two national titles and is nationally ranked most seasons.

If approved, the renovation is likely to cost nearly $15 million, and, in a best-case scenario, construction could begin after the 2001-02 basketball season. The project could be completed in less than two years, and athletic director Ted Leland is "hoping" the men's and women's basketball and volleyball teams could continue using Maples Pavilion during construction, although the plan is not specific enough yet to know that for sure. The renovation is likely to include revisions to the weight room and locker rooms, adding about 400 seats and adding a wall enclosing the walkways immediately outside the building for restrooms and concessions.

"We are just now having feasibility studies done," Leland said. "We have not gotten any kind of approval from the university."

The chance for renovation was initiated on Nov. 28, when the Santa Clara County supervisors approved Stanford's request for expansion of the campus. Stanford was granted an expansion of about 2 million square feet, with about 250,000 square feet going to athletic projects. Besides Maples, proposals to renovate the golf clubhouse and a student recreation center are also on the table.

Plans to build a new arena or significantly expand Maples to about 12,000 seats were not seen as financially feasible, especially since the arena would be used only for collegiate events and not for concerts or other general-use events that might increase revenue. Such an expansion would have cost in excess of $80 million, according to some estimates.

Leland would have liked to increase capacity significantly, but added, "I think it's a good compromise between doing nothing and building a whole new building."

Also on the drawing board is the renovation of Stanford Stadium, but that is expected to come a year or two after Maples' renovation and is part of the Bay Area's proposal to host the Olympic Games in 2012.